The Chief Constable for Humberside has called on the Government to pay for police pension changes which could otherwise lead to 180 less officers on the beat.

Lee Freeman warned improvements to policing in the Humberside force area will be lost due to "inevitable" cuts in the number of officers or PCSOs protecting our communities.

He reacted strongly to the proposal from Government that police pension changes will be met from the Humberside Police budget.

That £9.2million shortfall, warned the Chief Constable, is equivalent to 180 officers' jobs or every PCSO being axed.

Humberside Police Chief Constable Lee Freeman (Image: Jerome Ellerby)

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Humberside, Keith Hunter has joined other Commissioners in England and Wales to persuade the Chancellor, Philip Hammond to do a u-turn and fund the changes from central Government.

Local MPs in North East Lincolnshire, Melanie Onn and Martin Vickers, will be urged to support the campaign to get the funding proposal reversed.

Mr Freeman said: "What is most important to us is that we are able to provide the best possible service for the communities we serve.

"However, the Government's announcement that the shortfall in the national force pension fund needs to be met by local budgets could mean that we may need to find an extra £9.2million in the next two years – and that money has to come from somewhere.

"I and the PCC Keith Hunter are determined to highlight the significant impact this would have on how we police locally – and potentially on the number of officers and staff we are able to employ - which isn’t something I or the public want."

He added: "£9.2 million is the equivalent of losing 180 new officers or every PCSO we have in force, neither of which we want to do and the impact will be devastating.

"What I would say is that the officers and staff at Humberside are at the heart of everything we do and I will always try to save money without the loss of jobs. The sheer size of these additional costs unfunded would mean this is almost impossible to achieve.

"My teams provide an invaluable service to our communities, helping to protect the most vulnerable and bringing criminals to justice."

Humberside Police Chief Constable, Lee Freeman welcomed over 160 new recruits this year

In a statement to residents, the Chief said: "You have told us about the positive impact you have seen following our ongoing recruitment drive and this is something we want to build on, not to dismantle."

Mr Hunter said: "This unexpected decision from Government would require us to produce additional money from our existing funds to increase employers’ contributions to police pensions.

"Next year, if this is unfunded by central Government, it would require us to find £2.6 million from the police revenue budget, and the following year once the full costs hit us, potentially in excess of £6 million per year.

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"It's a massive amount and an unprecedented change when we'd been told to expect a flat cash settlement in the budget from the Home Office with some flexibility in the precept to try and improve policing, and this has the potential to fundamentally change that.

"All Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales have supported a letter written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to express our concern and the National Police Chief’s Council, which represents Chief Constables, is also very vocal about this which shows how serious it is, as they tend to keep out of matters which could be seen as political.

"If this money is removed from our budget, with very little notice, there could be an immediate stop put on recruitment and we would have to fundamentally assess what policing looks like across the Humberside force area, and what our contribution would be to national and regional policing priorities.

Police and Crime Commissioner, Keith Hunter, has highlighted the possible impact if Government cuts go ahead

"This same issue is also affecting the NHS, and the Government have said they will cover the cost for that but police forces are going to have to pick this up themselves, so it undermines everything they have said about steady finances for policing over the next few years and the Treasury are holding their ground at the moment.

"We are writing to the Home Office to try to get them to apply pressure to the Treasury and say that it is unacceptable to do this to policing as we cannot cope with these variations in funding.

"Humberside Police has received very positive feedback from its recent visit by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate and I'm out in communities where people are telling me they are starting to see a difference with more officers on the streets.

"We will reach a total of 1,900 police officers by the end of this year, which is the highest officer workforce since 2011 and it would be a seriously backward step to turn the tap off and lose around 200 officers in the following two years as we would not have the funds to replace those leaving through natural turnover because of the impact of this decision."